ALCS Game Two: Angels @ Yankees

With four days off between the Division Series and the Championship Series, there was plenty of time to focus on the negative, as some are wont to do. There was talk about CC Sabathia‘s struggles in the postseason and against the Angels, Anaheim’s ownage of the Yanks, the weather, and just about everything negative you could possibly think of. Game One, however, could not have possibly gone any better for New York. Sabathia dominated (and J-Poz wrote about it), the Yankees got timely hits and capitalized on Angel errors, and The Sandman closed the door. It all adds up 1-0 series lead.

The Yanks get a bit of a break tonight, because Mike Scioscia is sending Joe Saunders to the bump rather than the grizzled AL East vet Scott Kazmir. It certainly is a curious decision, but I’m not complaining. The Yankees will counter with AJ Burnett, who will have personal catcher Jose Molina behind the dish. It’s a good thing, Jorge Posada did such a horrible job behind the plate last night. Sigh.

The weather doesn’t look great, but everyone’s hopefully they’ll get this one. The baseball gods usually take care of these things, so I feel pretty confident that we’ll get nine innings in tonight. FOX has the call yet again, first pitch is tentatively scheduled for 7:57pm ET. Enjoy.

Some friends of mine that do ticket business said that people inside the stadium are of the mind that they’ll go to great lengths to get this game in, due to the impending TV scheduling nightmare that tommorrow would be if this game were to get rained out.

aj

why didn’t they play earlier today? Imagine that, in less than ice cold weather.

Salty Buggah

I have to finish a damn essay on Shia and Sunni Muslims and then I have to leave to go somewhere so I cant watch the game. But I’ll be sure to follow it on my phone.

Here’s hoping we witness Saunders in the fetal position on the mound tonight.

Joe D.

There’s more than one kind of Muslim?

/American Dreamz’d

http://bronxbaseballdaily.com Matt ACTY/BBD

.509 SLG against this season, but his control was good against them–just two walks in 13 innings.

Joe D.

.509 SLG?

Man, the Sunni Muslims can rake!

Joe D.

Ah, you were referencing Saunders, darn it.

I was hoping baseball was becoming a truly global phenomenon quicker than I realized.

Nuts.

Salty Buggah

Heh, my essay is on a book called Shia Revival (which I have not read at all so Im basing my essay on some articles by NYT and from the Harvard website) by Vali Nasr and Im supposed to explain the differences and conflicts between Shias and Sunnis while explaining how this will affect the future in the Middle East and Western policy making.

http://bronxbaseballdaily.com Matt ACTY/BBD

Yours is slightly more difficult, but I wrote an entire paper on Frankenstein w/o having read a single page.

Salty Buggah

I did too 11th grade. Though I think I read the first 10 or so pages and read all of sparknotes.

Of the four starts Yankees pitchers have made this postseason, the worst was A.J.’s five-walk, two-HBP performance against a not-particularly-patient Minnesota squad. The catcher for that worst of four? Mr. Jose Molina, of course.

In fact, his best three starts of the year were with Posada behind the plate. Apr 14 Tampa, Jun 14 Mets, and of course Aug 7 Boston.

Joe D.

Shhhhh, Vin.

You and your pesky “common sense” and “reality”…you make me sick.

Baseball comes from here (points at lower stomach), in the gut. You nerdlingers and your damn fancy sheetspreads and Wordexcel thingies are ruining the game. Why don’t you stop making believe you enjoy baseball and go do an R-squared Z-score analysis or some shit.

/McCarvermorganbrennaman’d

Vin R.

Well if we’re talking about guts, does Molina have more than Posada, who was and still is a big leader on this club?

Tank the Frank

I hope that this is one of those games that just follows the status quo. Nothing would be more frustrating than watching an inferior pitcher like Saunders mow us down as he did his last start. A lot of our big hitters have great numbers vs Saunders, and I just hope everything goes to plan. I’m looking for 4.1 IP, 5 ER from Saunders. He gives up way too many HR. Someone goes deep against him.

By “looking for 4.1,” aren’t you just setting yourself up for disappointment? He’s been pretty good over the past 5 or so weeks.
I’m just looking for a dubya.

Tank the Frank

Good point. I just mean I’m really not in the mood for a nail-biter against this guy. They should crush him and I hope they do.

http://bronxbaseballdaily.com Matt ACTY/BBD

+1

They usually hit Saunders hard, but we can’t expect too much.

Christos

Who else got free tickets to last nights dominance?

Tank the Frank

I did. It’s weird you should ask.

Christos

Where were you sitting? 407B on my part.

Tank the Frank

219 row 9, 1B corner of home plate, got free Audi Club passes too. That place is awesome. It makes me wish I was made of money. It was all Sushi and Champagne in that place.

Reggie C.

Mike,

Your MLBTR post on red sox SS options for 2010 included a mention of trading Hanley Ramirez. Was that a throwaway name you decided to tack on the last second to add some zist to post, or is he a real possibility?

That was two deviously fiendishly brilliant playcalls by offensive supergenius Charlie Weis. Do you see how he totally flummoxed the haplessly out of position Trojan defenders with all that clever trickeration and motion? He totally caught them off guard and set up Clausen with an easy, wide open reciever.

What’s that? That totally didn’t happen, and the Irish called to boring ass, vanilla slants that USC easily shut down because they’ve seen that play over and over again since Pee-Wee football?

Oh, nevermind then. Forget I mentioned it, my bad.

Tony

Hey dude, Duval Kamara fell down. That play was wide open.

Tank the Frank

I was at that game! 1998 Game 1. That was the loudest I’ve ever heard the Stadium. But I haven’t been to more than a handful of postseason games….

Christos

last night was my first postseason and new stadium game, i saw one game at the old stadium…carl pavano beat aj burnett 2-1

Tank the Frank

Hell I wish I could be there tonight. I’m 5 for my last 5 wins in the games I’ve gone to, from the 2007 ALDS Game 3 to last night. And I’m 3 for 3 in playoff games!

So is it just me or do these Fox guys want to give no credit to the Yankees for winning last night?

crapulent aka I said good day sir

It’s funny the guys at Halo Heaven or whatever the hell they are called think that the announcers are giving massive blowjobs to the Yankees. I think it’s a perspective thing.

Tank the Frank

Honestly, I’m a huge homer, but it’s been all about the Angels mistakes; the Yankees can’t win close games, and because they played good defense and went 1st to 3rd once, they played “Angel baseball.”

crapulent aka I said good day sir

I was thinking all day that they should have been playing baseball today. WTF does television dictate this crap?

whozat

It is really annoying. When you’re playing somewhere with potential weather issues (north and east in the fall and spring), you should really play in the daytime. The priority should be getting the games in.

lol.. They say they think AJ will struggle, I suppose Saunders is teh Ace.

whozat

Yeah, that was pretty dumb. I think they could both struggle, pretty easily. Burnett is already prone to wildness, he may have a tough time getting a grip on the curveball, and the Angels WILL take advantage of free baserunners in a way that the Twins couldn’t.

Tank the Frank

Yeah, the guy with average stuff, bad numbers, and around 50 HR allowed (roughly) should cruise.

Mike HC

Asking these guys for predictions are stupid. Why would they predict a bad start for AJ? Who knows how he is going to pitch. I know everyone loves the predictions and stuff, but it just rubbed my as a bit bush league right there.

I waited until the last minute to turn to FOX and the first thing I see is still Joe Buck’s emaciated face.

Just ain’t right.

Still, LET’S GO YANKEES.

baravelli

“Turn up the heat?!” That’s really all they could think of for the Yankees keys? That means nothing!

ShuutoHeat

Bring this shiet on!

Raul

Joe Buck/Tim Mcarver are retards.

master bra’tac

A media question that i hope someone can answer: the foxsports Spanish channel in new york (on IO cable)has the rights to broadcast tonight’s ALCS game but instead of showing it on channel 223 its on channel 9 and 9 HD.
My question has been like this before or is this the first for an arraignment like this?

For real man. He acted like that ‘Fox trax’ thing was the greatest invention.

baravelli

I guess it’s interesting that the pitch lost 7 mph as it travelled, but they need to show me how that relates to different kinds of pitches, and different qualities of pitches. Does this measurement relate to the so-called “late life” you hear about and which I was always skeptical wasn’t an illusion of some kind? Can pitchers really somehow control something about a pitch’s aerodynamics that makes it lose less speed? If they actually did work, their Trax dealy could be very cool, instead of just a gimmick.

whozat

Backspin won’t really make it lose less speed, but it will make the pitch drop less, yeah.

i want someone to stare back at a catcher when his eyes peer in on a batter

http://bronxbaseballdaily.com Matt ACTY/BBD

Swisher doin’ what Swisher does.

Let’s go, Robbie.

Dela G

great eye swish

Andy in Sunny Daytona

NINJANO TIME!

Salty Buggah

I love how the Fox guys completely ignore the outside call. Fuckers.

baravelli

Maybe this is just wishful thinking, but does it look like Saunders doesn’t actually look so good, despite not giving up a hit yet? He’s missing a lot of locations, and his breaking pitches don’t look under control.